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Aug 28, 2018 at 1:32 pm
Kamloops Voter asks the City Councillor, Mayor Candidates
What are the most important changes to the budget that you'd like to see?
William James Turnbull
There was a city questionnaire on this. I slid 3 areas to do able (Fire, Police & Administration if I recall correctly). That enabled all other departments to maximize their spending. It would need to be looked at extremely closely & requires other funding IE Federal, Provincial & Regional to do safely & responsibly. Specifically I haven't reviewed this year's budget. I'm guessing we could use a pedestrian bridge across the CP Rail Yard, Road Bridges Westsyde & Rayleigh West North Shore & West South Shore improve Red Bridge & develop a public washroom model that is safe & clean all the time for everyone.
Corally Delwo
I would like to see more money spent on upkeep of the city. We are in need of road maintenance, sports facilities need facelifts and repairs, a way better snow removal budget and plan, curbside composting plan and better recycling facilities, and we need to decide what to do with the green space (old golf course) at MacArthur Island.
Alison Klie
The first step is to do a full evaluation of the current budget. We need to find out where we are spending our money and whether or not it is being utilized in the best way. Once that is done we can make an informed decision on wear to make cuts or increase spending. I would also like to say that I am not against raising taxes to properly invest in our city. How can we expect to get better if we keep wanting to pay less for everything? It saves money when you get it done right the first time.
Nicholas Adams
Investment should be done now with a view toward the future as costs are not coming down, and foresight will pay dividends in the future. I believe we are underfunding snow removal. It is hard as we can not predict how much snow we will get, but we need to ensure they have the resources required.
Donovan Cavers
I think we need to remain steadfast in our pursuit of attracting a wide range of feedback on the annual budget from across the community.
Sadie Hunter
Taxpayers (rightly) want to know how their tax dollars are spent and what their dollar to service value ratio is year-to-year. The only way to find this out is by reviewing what constitutes core services. Core reviews have gained in popularity across BC over the last 10 years or so, with Penticton leading the way. This kind of review comes down to asking three questions: What is government's (You might want to use City’s business, most people do not think of city council as government but reserve that for the provincial and federal governments) business? How are we going to do it? And how can we do it better? I believe the first step in finding out where we can spend less lies in answering these three questions. It might not result in a cut in spending but it may revise things that aren’t serving us well so we can focus our attention on what we can do better.
Caroline King
The snow removal budget is receiving an increase for the coming year but I have my doubts that the projected 400,000 will even come close to what is needed. I recognize that increasing budgets often means an increase in homeowner taxes and that's never popular with the taxpayer.